Two weeks ago I spent a lovely long weekend in Lyme Regis to celebrate a milestone birthday of one of my friends. Her husband had rented a house for close family (and me – I’ve known my friend since we were five) as a surprise for her. The weather was fantastic most of the time, and Lyme Regis looked so beautiful.
It’s a perfect seaside town – with a big sandy beach, nestled here in the capital of the Jurassic coast, where day trippers hammer for fossils in the rocks. Lyme Regis is famous for Mary Anning, a working class woman in the nineteenth century who unearthed a two meter long skull of an ichthyosaur (but at the time was never recognised for her finds or scientific ability because of her class and gender).
Lyme Regis is full of tiny winding streets and colourful cottages with front gardens full of abundant, frothy flowers – alliums, delphiniums and giant daisies. But there’s also a thriving bohemian scene which stops the town from being too twee – with lots of galleries in between the obvious tourist shops.
We ate a celebratory dinner at Hix Oyster and Fish House, scoffing cockle popcorn (deep fried cockles – see photo) with our cocktails before tucking in to shell fish soup and fish pie.
On our last night I made this lime chicken because I wanted to use up the many limes left over from all the mojitos we had drunk over the weekend. It’s just another incredibly simple chicken tray bake of course but the connotations of ‘lime and Lyme’ and the zesty citrus flavour made it a bit special. I served it with a fine bottle of chilled Chablis, a packet of microwaveable rice and a salad of rocket, avocado and cucumber. Oh and we had a first course of crevettes – eaten cold with a bit of mayonnaise.
Ingredients
- 1 chicken breast per person
- 4 limes (zest and juice)
- 4 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons runny honey
Method
- Mix the lime zest and juice with the honey and soy sauce and pour over the chicken, mix well and marinate in the fridge for at least an hour.
- Bake at 190C for about 40 minutes until cooked.
- Serve with slices of lime.
Cheap, fresh and easy 